Facts Of The Day 8/30

Extreme Heat

• Investigators are looking at whether climate change was a contributing factor in the deaths of a family and their dog in California.

• King County, Washington, is planning to plant and preserve 3 million trees by 2025 to add green space and combat extreme heat.

• Idaho dairies are affected by the extreme heat, with some seeing a loss of 100,000 pounds of milk per day or 10 to 15% loss of milk production

• Extreme heat has driven calls to expand the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program that can help households access cooling technology in New York in response to the increasing temperatures.

• Nelson County, Virginia schools were closed on Friday for multiple reasons, including coronavirus concerns and extreme heat.

• California utility provider PG&E has installed a microgrid that can power about 54 customers that include a fire station, a market, a medical site and a college student housing building in Napa County.

• The Bureau of Land Management is speeding up its wild horse collection to protect the animals from starvation brought on by drought.

• Drought in Minnesota has caused stressed fish, berry shortages causing bears to increasingly venture into neighborhoods to forage for food and dying trees.

• The water rights system in California has widened the existing inequities of water access among farmers.

• Drought has affected the cantaloupe crop in California, where one farmer has had to cut back his crop by 20%.

• Sugar growers in Florida sued the U.S, Army Corps of Engineers last week over proposed Everglades Agricultural Area reservoir water levels, claiming more water is needed for planting schedules and crop rotation.

• A Englewood, Florida restaurant closed on Saturday because of the red tide, and said they would reopen Wednesday.

• Tesla has applied to the Texas Public Utility Commission to sell electricity directly to customers.

Wildfires

• There are currently 83 large active wildfires that have burned 2,563,634 acres across CA, CO, ID, MN, MT, NV, WA, OR, UT, WA and WY.

• Wildfires in California are moving to higher elevations, endangering more forest as being harder for firefighters to reach.

• Approximately 200 Army soldiers will be deployed in California to assist with fighting wildfires.

• In California, the Caldor Fire burned 168,387 acres and was 19% contained as of Monday.

  • Parts of the Lake Tahoe Basin were placed under evacuation orders and warnings on Sunday.

  • Barton Memorial Hospital in South Lake Tahoe began evacuating all its patients on Sunday.

  • The Caldor Fire has destroyed at least 650 structures, damaged at least 40 and injured 5 people as of Sunday night.

• One new fire sparked in Utah on Sunday – the Oak Grove Fire burned 250 acres and was 0% contained.

Hurricanes

• Hurricane Ida’s rapid intensification from a Category 2 storm on Saturday to a Category 4 storm on Sunday morning was due to a combination of climate change, seasoning timing and luck.

• Hurricane Ida weakened to a tropical storm on Monday after killing at least 1 person, knocking out power to more than 1 million homes in Louisiana and at least 100,000 in Mississippi on Sunday.

  • Ida made landfall at about noon local time on Sunday, the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, as a Category 4 storm at Port Fourchon, Louisiana with winds of max speeds of 145 MPH.

  • Damage in Louisiana includes buildings with roofs ripped off, scattered debris, downed trees.

  • Louisiana has seen rain and storm surge that could result in “catastrophic impacts” along its southern coast.

  • Southeastern Louisiana and southern Mississippi could experience dangerous storm surges and flash floods on Monday.

  • Tornadoes are possible from Mississippi to the western Florida Panhandle Monday evening.

• The entire city of New Orleans, Louisiana remains without power as of Monday morning due to Ida.

  • The LaPlace area in New Orleans has experienced significant flooding.

  • The south shore area of New Orleans was under an emergency flash flood warning on Monday.

  • Emergency medical services were suspended throughout the city on Sunday due to high winds.

  • New Orleans residents have been warned to remain indoors due to burning fires, which firefighters cannot put out due to Ida’s damage to the water system

  • Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards announced search and rescue operations began Monday morning.

• At least one levee overtopped in Jefferson Parish, which forced residents of Jean Lafitte, Barataria and Lafitte to their attics to escape rising waters.

  • At least one school was destroyed by the flooding and the only bridge into Barataria was destroyed by a vessel, which will complicate rescue efforts.

  • Jefferson Parish residents are under a boil water advisory as of Sunday night, as the water system has been damaged by downed trees.

• The emergency services for the Orleans and St. Charles Parishs have been knocked out, leaving residents unable to call 911.

  • Orleans Parish residents have been told to ask for help from first responders in person.

  • Both emergency and non-emergency phone lines in St. Charles Parish are down.

• The generator in Lafourche Parish’s Thibodaux Regional Hospital’s intensive care unit failed on Sunday, leaving medical staff to scramble to keep patients breathing as they were being moved to other parts of the hospital.

  • Patients had to have hospital staff push air in and out of their lungs by hand.

  • Patients had to be transferred out of the ICU and into the post-anesthesia care unit using the hospital’s stairwell.

• Because of COVID concerns, Alabama residents had been told on Friday to evacuate to emergency shelters due Hurricane Ida only as a last resort.

  • Rain from Ida is expected to spread northward and eastward in Alabama on Monday.

  • All of Alabama remains under a threat of flash flooding as of Monday.

  • Southern Alabama remains under risk for scattered severe storms throughout Monday while the rest of the state could see isolated severe storms.

  • The state remains threatened by heavy rain and isolated tornadoes into Tuesday.

• Jackson metro-area residents in Mississippi could see winds of 60 MPH and heavy rain on Monday from Ida.

  • Ida brought down power lines and trees that blocked roads and fell on at least one house.

  • A tropical storm warning remains in effect as of Monday.

  • Hurricane Ida forced the Mississippi River to flow backward on Sunday.

• Julian, which formed as a tropical storm on Saturday, was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone by early Monday.

• President Joe Biden announced a major disaster declaration for Louisiana on Sunday due to Hurricane Idea.

Climate Studies